If you've fallen behind in the ongoing saga of Who's on First at Florence City Hall, here's a quick primer:
* For years and years, several City offices have been located in the Florence-Lauderdale Government Building on Court Street.
* In the relatively recent past, the City moved the Board of Education back to Riverview Drive and made room for Andy's office (we assume the Government Building had better napping acoustics than City Hall).
* In the past few months, the Florence Utilities payment department has moved to its new facilities on Seville Street, freeing up at least a small amount of space in City Hall.
However, with cries of black mold lighting fixtures and asbestos door knobs, the current Florence City Council has ordered a new building from Amazon. Yes, that previous sentence was written with tongue in cheek, but the idea is the same. The council wants a new building, complete with their names on a plague in the lobby. With only months to go in their terms, something has to be done quickly.
The cost of this new Taj Mahal central office office is rising every day, but the council now thinks it has a solution. The new municipal building will be smaller, with the more minor offices stuffed .8 mile away in a tin can that Bank Independent will no longer need for an Operations Center once its new marble palace is complete on the TVA Reservation. (See photo above.)
Cost of the Veterans Drive tin can? Two Million. Look carefully at the photo of the Bank Independent Operations Center above. We assume the building is worth $9,999.99, with the prime real estate being valued at $1,990,000.01.
Can the Florence City Council not find a better (and perhaps cheaper) building within .8 mile of the Municipal Building? Or is the council simply scratching Macke Mauldin's back?
Even better, can the council not come up with some kind of alternative financing to complete the original plan for a new City Hall adjacent to the current outdated one? At this rate, Florence will be replacing its facilities more often than Burger King or Mickey D's.
